Chapter Nineteen
Chris pulled away from the kiss and looked Nobi in the eyes, and at the precise moment his heart hammered out of his throat with the words, “I have to tell you something.”
Nobi expressed the exact same sentiment, “I have to tell you something.”
While he stared at her intently he knew this was the moment for him to finally share his heart—
“Ahem.” Cook cleared her throat again. “I know there’s a lot that needs to be said, and done, between you two, but can we sort out these two buffoons first?
I’d rather not have to cook over these two ogres.
A lot should be returning shortly in search of dinner, so I’m sure we can round up some footmen to take care of them, but if you want dinner on time—and I’m not sure you do, but if you do—then you’ll need to manage the chaos while I manage the kitchen. ”
The reminder snapped Chris to attention. With Nobi’s face still in his hands, he pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. “Soon. Very soon. We’ll talk.”
Then he went into duke mode as he strode out of the kitchen.
The staff would be returning shortly which meant they wouldn’t be too far off.
Within a minute he caught sight of a footman who he directed to find a few more men.
Not soon after that, the stablehands were returning, so he grabbed a few of them to watch the ruffians.
Two stood guard while a third went in search of a Bow Street runner.
The events passed quickly, but not quickly enough.
Chris ached to finally be with Nobi. It had been too long.
He could feel the intense pressure boiling inside of him, keen on bubbling over.
The way she had kissed him in the kitchen indicated that she might be of the same mind as he was…
but he couldn’t help the small skeptic in some dark corner of his mind from leading him astray.
What if that kiss wasn’t expressing an undying love so much as it was expressing relief, gratitude, and joy that he was safe? God only knows how he would feel if the roles had been reversed. If Nobi’s life was in danger…he exhaled a ragged sigh…he wouldn’t know what to do with himself.
They had kissed countless times in the past. Perhaps they had defaulted to that mode of being? Perhaps she was comforting him in the only way she knew how? Perhaps all the anxiety of the abduction was squelched, just like that fire was, with a kiss?
No. He couldn’t think that way. He had to stay optimistic.
Even if it was a kiss of friendship. That wasn’t the kiss of death.
He could still tell her how he felt, ask her to marry him—nay, convince her to marry him—and then spend the rest of his life wooing her until she fell head over feet for him.
He didn’t need anything else in the world except to love her.
And that’s what he reminded himself of as he stormed back into the house. He was still a man on a mission. His freedom was only the first half. Seeing her, loving her, that was the rest of the mission.
When he reached the house the same way he left, he expected to see Nobi in the kitchen. Although, if he thought about it, it didn’t really make sense that she would have just waited there, pistol in hand, for him.
So when she wasn’t standing there, pistol—or otherwise—in hand for him, he demanded, “Where is she?”
Cook gave him a wry look, “What did you expect? That she would sit in the corner awaiting your return?”
No. Obviously he didn’t expect that. She was a woman of action, if anything…he felt like an idiot thinking it…she would have been standing. But not to go down that circular route again, he asked again. “Well, where is she?”
“The poor woman was shaken up. She’s in the pink bedchamber taking a bath, resting.”
Chris took a few steps to storm after her.
“You’re going to see her now?” Cook, who was really only getting away with this attitude because she had been around when he was in leading strings begging for cookies, needled him.
“I don’t care if the woman is naked. I’m going to her now.” And then just to be sure Cook knew his intentions were honorable—because he couldn’t disappoint the one who had gone out of her way to make his favorite oatmeal cookies growing up, he added, “I’m going to make her my wife.”
Cook clucked her tongue, “I’m not stopping you. I was just asking.” Then she gave him a wink. “What are you waiting for? Go get her.”
Chris shot like a bullet up the stairs and burst into her room.
And sure enough, though she gasped loudly when she saw him, she was sitting in a large copper bath pouring water over her shoulders.
Her bare shoulders. Shoulders that he had seen before.
Kissed before. Marked before. Loved before.
But it was all nothing compared to how he felt now.
Now he needed to make those shoulders his wife. Uh. That woman with those shoulders, and that great big heart.
Why had he waited so long? A tear burned the corner of his eye. He needed her to be his.
He dropped to his knees beside her.
“Chris? What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk.”
“It couldn’t wait.” She said it as a statement, not a question. And that observation gave him hope.
Before he could get out a single word, she blurted out, “Take me with you.”
And though he was sure he knew what she meant, he asked anyway, “Where?”
“Everywhere you plan to go.”
His heart soared above, far higher than any clouds he had witnessed. “When?”
“Whenever you want. I’m ready.”
He cupped her cheek, his fingertips playing with the damp hair at the nape of her neck. “Nobi, I don’t need to spend my whole life traveling. I no longer need to go anywhere but with you. I don’t need to see everything. I just want to see you every day.”
She sighed his name.
“I love you, Nobi. I always have and I always will.”
“Always?” she asked breathlessly, as though in disbelief.
“Since the moment we faked a tryst to save me from that husband-hunter.”
“You did?”
He nodded. And when her warm wet thumbs rubbed at his cheeks, he realized that the wetness wasn’t just from her fingers. A few tears were streaking down his cheeks.
“It’s always been you, Nobi. I-I I haven’t been with anyone since I’ve been with you.”
Her gasp caught him off guard. He never would have thought that she would expect him to be faithful to her and their friendship, but her gasp of delight told him that she loved him all the more for his loyalty.
But they had always known that. Always known that of each other. They were loyal. Protective. They would do nothing to hurt the other person.
“You really love me?” Her eyes shone with tears now too, and it was his turn to kiss them away.
“I love you more than I’ve ever loved anything, Nobi. You are my greatest adventure.”
“I love you. You are my rock,” she whispered and pulled his lips to hers.
“You’re my light. There’s never been anyone else that has caught my soul the way you have.”
“Nor me,” she kissed his cheek. When she pulled back, she had a cheeky grin on her face. One of her hands drifted from his face to his fingers, and she tucked her pinky inside of his until she had him wrapped. “But what about those thousand needles?”
His smile couldn’t have grown any wider. “We will always have our friendship. There’s no need for any needle-swallowing. You are my best friend. You will always be. But now you will be my wife.”
At those words, she held in a sob.
Thankfully the tub was large. Chris stood up and crawled in, one knee down in the tub.
Water splashed over the edges. He didn’t care.
If the recent sequence of events had taught him anything, it was to live.
Live now. There was no better time than now.
It was the present. And he wanted to open it and appreciate it for all it was worth.
“Nobi, you are my greatest joy. Every memory we have together, I cherish because you are my treasure. I will devote my life to protecting you, being loyal to you, exploring the adventure that is you. Loving you with my body, mind, heart, and soul. You are my everything. My friend, my lover. Will you do me the greatest honor and become my wife?”
“Yes!” she shouted, and water splashed around them as she took to her knees and threw her arms around his neck.
Her lips were finding his and the kisses were sloppy. Ravenous. Full of hunger and passion. And he knew that his life would never be the same.
“I wasn’t ready before,” she murmured in between kisses.
“It doesn’t matter, we’re ready now. We’re both here now.” He reassured her with his words and with kisses trailing down her neck. She smelled of his fresh soap and he wanted to feast on her.
“I wasn’t ready before, but now I am. I had to almost lose you”—her voice choked up—“before I could grasp hold of you. I will never let you go, Chris.”
“You couldn’t let me go if you tried, my treasure.” He took her nipple into his mouth and lightly sucked on her.
“Uh…Chris. I love you. I would give up everything for you.”
“You don’t have to.” Saying the words gave him a small break as well as a good excuse to transfer his attention to her other breast.
“That may be, but I want you to know that I would. My life needs you in it to feel full. It’s hollow without you.”
She was peeling back his now heavy layers of clothing, but the fabric was sticking to him, making it a nearly impossible task for one person to accomplish.
“Together,” he said with two meanings as he started to help shuck his layers to the floor, “we can do anything. Together.”
When his top layers were removed, he leaned in for a kiss, but Nobi’s hands on his chest stopped him.
“Wait,” she panted and gestured toward his breeches. “Take those off. Now.”
He loved how demanding she was when she was aroused. He stood up, letting the water sluice down his body. With a teasing look, he slowly slid his breeches down. Sopping wet, he let them fall to the floor.
Her hands were around his thighs, and she licked his cock. “I want to taste you, Chris.”
His hands flew to the sides of the tub as he arched his hips toward her.
She placed kisses along his length and ran her tongue on the underside of his cock.
Then she took his head in her mouth and sucked on him.
Slowly at first. Gentle. Then she hallowed out her cheeks and slid his tip to the back of her throat.
A harsh moan rattled through the air. “Nobi, I love this. I love you. I want to come inside of you.”
She hummed her consent.
“Inside of you to fill you up.”
Understanding dawned and she sucked off of him with a pop.
His lips scrambled to find hers and he could taste himself on her lips. His cock was as solid as a gun ready to shoot.
He grabbed her legs and pulled them over his hips. The water was sloshing everywhere as he thrust inside of her.
Her head lolled back and she sobbed her pleasure, encouraging him to take her hard again.
“I need you, Nobi. We’ll never be apart again. You’re mine. All mine.”
He could feel her clenching around him as she moaned. Her legs trembled around his waist and he knew she was close.
“Come for me, my love. My life. My treasure.”
With a scream of his name, he felt her pulsate around him, squeezing him, wringing out his pleasure. A flash of white shot through him like a bullet, tearing him up, showing him exactly what he was made of. Flesh and fire.